Question reguarding antibiotic Cipro

[[li...]]

Not sure I am posting in the right place so if I am not someone can move it. I have read so many post on this forum reguarding the use of Cipro. Just got me to thinking and I thought I would see what people have to say. What is the problem or any problems someone has had using Cipro. The reason I ask is I have been prescribed Cipro for years and years for what I thought were reaccuring bladder infections. When I was having my anxiety attacks I was on Cipro even then. Even went to the ER  thinking my bladder was in a mess. Short version there was no bladder infection at all. So I don't know now if I have been taking the junk all these years for no reason. Is there a problem with Cipro and the way it acts on our brains? The doctor just kept giving them to me and after reading this board I am just wondering if I should every take it again. Can't remember who all has posted about it but would sure love to know more about this antibiotic before I ever take it again. Many thanks

 

M

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More will be by to respond.  I was on Cipro for a bladder infection.  Had quite a few while I was on xanax.  Found out it is a side effect or can be from benzo's.  Makes sense now.  Cipro reacts or interferres with your nervous system and is part of a group of antiobiotics call Quinolones.  I definitely felt my symptoms rev up when I took it. Some on here have had very bad reactions to these kind of antibiotics.  I stay away from them now.

 

mal

[[li...]]

Thanks for responding Mal. Cipro is about all I have ever taken, and taken a lot over the past 20 years, doctor just kept writing scribes don't think he even checked my urine. Makes me wonder now if that wasn't part of my anxiety problems. Especially after it landed me in the er thinking my bladder was in a mess and I didn't even have a bladder infection. 

 

 

M

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It very well could have been.  So many on here have had bad reactions to that classification of antibiotics.  I know I felt it too when I took it.

 

mal

[[Js...]]

Hi M, my name is Jim.

 

I can definitely say that my insomnia and anxiety, along with tendonitis and muscle issues all started after my introduction to Cipro. I had never taken it before and will never take it again, I was on it for 5 weeks due to a presumed infection. It is what has caused me to go on Klonopin in the first place. They are nasty antibiotics who's side effects are very similar to those of benzo's but with a whole lot more that can happen. If you would like more info. on the effects of these antibiotic you can go to www.fqresearch.org and get more info.

 

My comments/suggestion is that it could have definitely caused your anxiety/insomnia/other issues and to never take another of this class of antibiotic unless it's life or death and then in my case I would have to still think hard about it.

 

I would be glad to share more with you if you are interested, it's been a long rocky road for this past year and I have spoken to many people that have been effect by fluoroquinolones.

 

Jim

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Hey Jsince - my name's John and I'd like to hear more of your experience with Cipro and anxiety.  I posted on the anxiety board (didn't see this one in my haste; I'm learning !) but will summarize again here since maybe this is the correct place for my question:

 

I was prescribed Cipro for prostatitis and took it for three weeks.  A few days after I took my last dose my anxiety level got to the point that I went to my doc and he prescribed ativan.  As it happens, I'm going through several difficult things right now and I thought those things were the reason for my anxiety.  I never would have thought to associate an antibiotic with anxiety until I found this site.  I quit the ativan after eight days but experienced w/d.  I am now tapering and hope to be off the ativan in about ten more days.  I now wonder, though, how much of my original anxiety was related to the Cipro.

 

What I'm wondering is:

 

Did your anxiety started while you were still taking Cipro or did it start later ?

If it started later, how long after you took your last Cipro did you experience hightened anxiety ?

Have you tapered off the benzos yet ?  If so, did your Cipro-related anxiety return ?

 

Thanks for your time.

[[li...]]

I can definitely say that my insomnia and anxiety, along with tendonitis and muscle issues all started after my introduction to Cipro

 

 

Thanks for the info I will check out the link. I was just amazed at what I had read on here about Cipro. I first took it for a sinus infection 20 years ago. Had no problem with it that I knew of. However I can't remember a 3 month period that I was not put back on it again. I was on it last summer when all my problems started. Over all those years I use to think I had fibro because of muscle aches and sore muscles. In Jan of this year I was taking it again. Was always given a refill just to keep on hand. That's when I landed in the ER for what I thought was a bladder infection and I didn't even have one. I didn't think much about it until I saw the posts on here and it makes me wonder now if I ever did have an infection. Certainly not as many as I was treated for. I was going to a walk in clinic and they always gave me Cipro. I have taken that antibiotic like candy. Yes Jan I was at my worse with the anxiety attacks and I was on Cipro. It's really over the last 20 years the only antibiotic I have had. I would love to know more, that may well explain a lot of things going on with me that I had no idea an antibiotic could cause. Many thanks and any info would be greatly appreciated. I have lost weight, muscle tone is not good at all and still do get sore muscles. Certainly appreciate learning more about this.

 

M

[[Js...]]

Hi litobitblond & jwm1, I am sorry to hear that you were potentially bitten by the Cipro (actually fluoroquinolone, Avelox and Levaquin amoung others) bug, it is a journey I never asked for nor expected to be on but isn't that the case with most of life's challenges.

 

To answer jwm1's questions:

 

Did your anxiety started while you were still taking Cipro or did it start later ? the anxiety started to periodically both me while taking it, would be a bit more stressed at work or with my son but always kinda blew it off. It, and the insomnia,  did not really kick in until about 2 - 3 weeks after I had taken the last dose.

 

 

If it started later, how long after you took your last Cipro did you experience heightened anxiety ? like I said above it really kicked in about 2 - 3 weeks after quitting

 

 

Have you tapered off the benzos yet ?  If so, did your Cipro-related anxiety return ? I am in the process of tapering off the 2mg of Klonopin that have been taking since last Oct., I satrtyed my taper at the end of April and now am at .875 divided into doses over the day, my signature line has those increments. The past couple of cuts have been worse, sick for a few days but then kinda straighten out for awhile. I hope that is a good sign that the Cipro related anxiety has abated but who knows, only time will tell.

 

 

In living this nightmare over the past year I have a lot I can share beyond what I've typed above, but I'm a better speaker than can type and there is so much that I could type.  If you would like to actually speak about this over the phone I would have no problem in doing so, let me know if that is something that would be helpful and I will send you my phone number in a PM.

 

I hope this helps but if I can say onething, do not take another of that class of antibiotic, it seems to build up in your system so even though it may have been OK the first time doesn't mean that you'll be OK the 2nd time. Only use them if you're gonna die, at this point in what I have been thru I still may chose option #2.

 

Let me know if you'd like to chat,

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Jim for responding to my questions.  I may want to chat at some point; I'll let you know.

 

I'm still a little unclear about how long after you quit taking Cipro that you experienced anxiety.  Put another way, did your anxiety go on for some time after you quit Cipro ?  It sounds like it did, otherwise you wouldn't have had to take the benzos, right ?  I'm really trying to get a handle on how long the post-Cipro anxiety will persist.  I'm tapering off ativan (so far, so good) but fear that when I taper off I'll get slammed again by anxiety that is actually caused by the Cipro and not w/d.

 

If its convenient, please post how long your anxiety lasted after Cipro.

 

Thanks so much for your time and the kind offer to chat.  I might take you up on that but right now I'm just gathering info and waiting to see how my taper goes.  Maybe I'll be lucky and the taper will be the end of my little (by comparison to most who post here) nightmare.

 

JWM

 

[[Pa...]]

Hi jwm,

 

You might want to check out a few other threads, talk to some more folks and get their experience.  If you use the search function on the upper right hand corner of the page you can put in the name or subject you'd like to see.  It may take a couple of tries hitting enter for it to come up with the subject or person you want but this is very helpful. 

 

Dominic came here with a problem with benzo's and Jsince asked him if he'd by chance taken an antibiotic.  It wasn't until Jsince asked that question that Dominic put it together with his suffering. 

 

Keep on asking questions and seek out all you can here on the forum.  There are many in your situation. 

 

Pam

[[Js...]]

Hi again John, the offer to chat is a standing one.

 

You actually answered your question, I don't know how long the anxiety lasted after Cipro because I went on a benzo about a month after the reaction (I can say it hadn't gotten any better by that time, actually was worsening) and now here I am. That, along is with the obvious, is why I want to get off the Klonopin, I want to see where I am at from the Cipro ordeal.

 

So, with this next statement please understand that, like benzo's, everyone's reactions to these antibiotics is different. Many, but probably not as many as the FDA like us to believe, don't have any problem. Some have terrible problems, not just CNS related but peripheral neuropathy, severe nerve pain, extreme muscle pain, vision issues, tendonitis/tendon ruptures,  all kinds of stuff. That does not mean that you are in for any of that nor that your anxiety won't or hasn't gone away. I see you took it for 3 weeks, I took it for 5. I know people that took the drug for that long and have had no problems, I know people that took it for 1 day and are a mess.

 

How long ago did you take it and is the anxiety the only issue you've had?

 

Along with the anxiety I have had to deal with insomnia, some muscle pain & weakness and achilles tendonitis, wonderful stuff that Cipro is.

 

Jim

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Thanks again Jim !

 

I took the last Cipro on July 19, 2009 (a Sunday).  I had been feeling anxious while on the Cipro but it wasn't that bad and I certainly didn't think the two were related.  There are some other difficult events going on in my life and I just thought I was getting stressed.  Well, by Monday the 20th. I was really feeling anxious and agitated and thought I'd talk to my doc.  He prescribed ativan at 2mg./day.

 

After having taken the ativan for eight days I decided to quit (after having done some reading about the high potential for addiction) and did so.  For a couple of days all seemed OK.  Then, on the third day out, I got clobbered with terrible anxiety - very physical symptoms (racing heart, high blood pressure, extreme agitation, feeling of tightness in my chest, shaking).  That led me to think I was having w/d from the ativan so I took two mg that night, found this forum and posted, and then saw my doc the next day.  He put me on a taper that closely matches what Theresa recommended and I working on that now (so far, so good).

 

What neither I nor my doc put together was that the anxiety was caused by the Cipro (at least originally) and the ativan was controlling it.  When I stopped the ativan I got hammered.  It was only by reading in this forum that I made the Cipro ativan connection.  So now I'm not sure if I really had an ativan habit developed or I was just having a relapse of the Cipro anxiety.  I can say that the anxiety I experienced after I quit the ativan was ten times worse than what I was experiencing when I originally say my doc.

 

Whatever the case, I don't want to be on benzos so I'm getting off them.  What really frightens me is that the Cipro could be waiting in ambush and when I finish my benzo taper I'll get hammered again.  To date anxiety is the only side effect I have experienced.

 

I simply couldn't tolerate the level of physical agitation I experienced the first time after quitting the ativan so I don't know what I'd do if it came back.  Thus, my pestering to try and find out details of people's post-Cipro anxiety.  I want to know if, after tapering off the benzos, the anxiety returned and if it was just as bad as before or not as bad.

 

I hope that answers your questions.

 

John

 

[[Pa...]]

Hi John,

 

Patty goes by the name of Stoneyco here is a link to her thread.  You might want to contact her, she's been around here a long time and might have the most long term experience with this family of antibiotics.  Here is a link to her thread.

 

http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=8861.msg203102#msg203102

 

I understand why you're so concerned, I'm just trying to give you more people to learn from.

 

Pam

[[sa...]]

Lito are we soul mates? I was prescribed countless antibiotics when I was younger for that very same reoccuring bladder infection that never was a bladder infection after all. Finally I found a smart doc who said omg! You dont have a bladder infection you have something called interstitial cystitis. I treated it with medication not antibiotics and to this day I have not had any more flare ups pain etc. It all went away! Perhaps this may help? I was in the same spot and it was quite a painful one for many years with no clue why. Ahhhh the joy of autoimmune disorders!

[[Th...]]

Lito are we soul mates? I was prescribed countless antibiotics when I was younger for that very same reoccuring bladder infection that never was a bladder infection after all. Finally I found a smart doc who said omg! You dont have a bladder infection you have something called interstitial cystitis. I treated it with medication not antibiotics and to this day I have not had any more flare ups pain etc. It all went away! Perhaps this may help? I was in the same spot and it was quite a painful one for many years with no clue why. Ahhhh the joy of autoimmune disorders!

 

I also have interstitial cystitis. What kind of meds do you take for flare ups?? I always used Urisept. Thankfully, I've only had one flare up in the last 7 years.

[[Js...]]

John, I know the question that you are asking, that same question haunts me everyday, what will resurface once I am off the Klonopin because you are absolutely right, even though I have not felt great taking the Klonopin at least it let me be functional and maintain my job, which is something I doubt I could not have done in the early stages of the reaction without the Klonopin, I was really losing it. So I do have the reoccurring thought, once off and if the Cipro monster returning what to do. I try not to dwell on it because it just make the anxiety worse and I won't know the answer till I get there. That is one of the main reasons that I want to try to get off because I don't know what is waiting and figure I owe it to myself to see. I wish I had a more conclusive answer but I just don't know, everyone is different. I will caution you that tendon issues can arise at a later date so if you start to feel and tenderness in you tendons, especially the achilles I would start to take it easy and see a doctor. The FDA did black box the fluoroquinolones for the possibility of tendonitis and tendon ruptures on July 4th 2008, just 4 days before I started taking the crap.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Jim

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Thanks again Jim (and all the others) !  Sounds like we are in the same spot:  waiting to see if our anxiety will return.  So far I have tapered down to .75mg/day of ativan and am doing OK - a few waves of minor anxiety but nothing I can't deal with (although I'd like to think I wouldn't be that way forever).  This gives me some hope in that the lack of heavy-hitting symptoms may imply that I'll be anxiety-free after the ativan.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see (like you).

 

My internet research did lead me to a site for a Dr. Jay Cohen who claims to be an expert on drug reactions and on anxiety/depression who has knowledge of and personal experience with the FQ antibiotics.  He will do telephone consultations and I'm going to schedule a fifteen minute one with him.  My hopes are that he can perhaps say what the most common reaction period is and help me with what to expect in the future and what to do if my anxiety returns.  He isn't cheap ($80 for fifteen minutes; $140 for half an hour) but I can afford eighty bucks and I figure its worth every penny if he provides anything useful.  Unfortunately its going to be a week or so before I can actually speak to him.  I'll post here with what he says.

 

Anybody else ever talk to Dr. Cohen or know anything about him ?  His website is www.medicationsense.com

 

Thanks again to all.  I'll be back when I have something to report.  Please add to this post if you know of Dr. Cohen or can help me and Jim with what to expect in the future.

 

John

 

[[sa...]]

Hi T2

gosh I am trying to wrack my brain for the name of the med he had me on but it isnt coming to me. It was something that took the inflamation down on the bladder lining. I took it for a while. Im going to think back and figure this out for you. In the meantime I took urelle as a numbing agent when things flared up. Luckily nothing has happened in years.

[[Th...]]

Hi T2

gosh I am trying to wrack my brain for the name of the med he had me on but it isnt coming to me. It was something that took the inflamation down on the bladder lining. I took it for a while. Im going to think back and figure this out for you. In the meantime I took urelle as a numbing agent when things flared up. Luckily nothing has happened in years.

 

Never heard of Urelle, I will look that one up. I like to have an arsenal of meds to tell my GP since he/they do not understand how to manage IC. 

[[li...]]

I can't believe what I am reading...no wonder I have felt so bad for so many years. I have taken only Cipro over the past 20 + years and taken them way to often for 10 days at a time. I would have never but all my muscle pain, and being sore all the time as being connected to Cipro. Explains why I could never do much in the way of exercises because it hurt to bad. Guess there is nothing you can do now, damage is done. Guess I can throw this bottle I have now away. I don't take anything unless I look it up first but I must have missed all the bad things about it when I looked it up, but then when I first started taking it, it had just come out. 

 

M

[[li...]]

I also have interstitial cystitis

 

I have been told this is what I have also. Never been treated for it just given Cipro. Has anyone been treated and what is the course for the treatment. Darn sure not taking Cipro anymore.

 

M

[[sa...]]

ok i just remembered the name of the medication they gave me it was elmeron.but dont forget this was many years ago

[[Th...]]

ok i just remembered the name of the medication they gave me it was elmeron.but dont forget this was many years ago

 

Thanks. 

[[Th...]]

I also have interstitial cystitis

 

I have been told this is what I have also. Never been treated for it just given Cipro. Has anyone been treated and what is the course for the treatment. Darn sure not taking Cipro anymore.

 

M

 

IC is not an infection, it is an inflammation of the bladder lining and creates the spasms/urgency we experience plus pressure pains. It should not be treated with an antibiotic. I am usually treated with a bladder anti-spasmatic medicine like Urisept. If I don't have a rx, I even resort to using AZO standard. Pyridium Plus is another one that works. The problems with the last two meds is that it turns the urine bright orange. The Urisept I use is a faint blue.

[[sa...]]

thats it pyridium was my other numbing medication! turned urine orange and stained toilet! but the urelle was blue. this helped tremendously and like i said after years of antibiotics now i have no pain no infections etc knock on wood